1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to antioxidant composition and production method thereof, the composition being remarkably efficative for preventing from and improving various diseases and for maintaining health and beauty.
2. Related Art Statement
Methods for effectively preventing and improving various diseases have recently been developed and put into practice, and the average life-span of humans has been prolonged accordingly. However, adult diseases such as arteriosclerosis, cerebral apoplexy, myocardial infarction, cancer, and diabetes; adult diseases such as malignant rheumarthritis, Behcet's disease, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis; and diseases induced by chemical substances have attracted attention as major problems from the viewpoint of maintaining health.
Although such diseases do not occur by the same cause, it is known, as a mechanism of directly damaging the human body, that excessive reactive oxygen species or lipoperoxides (simply referred collectively to as "reactive oxygen species" hereinafter) are produced in the human body by various types of external irritations including public pollutants, and contribute to the damage of tissues, leading to the occurrences of diseases.
The human body contains enzyme called superoxide dismutase (SOD) which scavenges this excessive reactive oxygen and protects the tissues of the body from damage, so that the enzymes may act to maintain health by scavenging any excess of reactive oxygen species and thus prevent us from diseases.
However, it has recently been proven that adult diseases occur, particularly in those over 40, because the above-described SOD activity is gradually reduced with age, and that, if an excess of reactive oxygen species is produced by chronic or acute irritation by chemically produced products, the human body becomes short of SOD activity and thus suffers from diseases, such as those described above. Therefore, the preserving SOD levels has attracted attention in the medical field.
It is therefore attempted to improve diseases induced by an increase in reactive oxygen species or a decrease in SOD activity or prevent from diseases by uptake of SOD. The method currently available by which SOD is administered into the body is only the SOD injection, and liposome-encapsulated SOD injection is increasingly recognized in Japan and France that this method has remarkable effects in the treatment of inveterate diseases such as Behcet's disease, malignant rheumarthritis, Kawasaki disease, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; and adult diseases such as cerebral apoplexy, myocardial infarction, and diabetes; and in the prevention of cancer and aging.
However, of the various forms of SOD drugs, only the effect of injection drugs is scientifically and medically recognized, while the effect of oral medicines has not been proven yet. This is because SOD is denatured by gastric juices, and it cannot be absorbed by the alimentary canal as it is, owing to its high molecular weight of 30000 or more.
In addition, SOD has a demerit of limitation in that it acts on superoxide (O.sub.2.sup.-) alone of the four reactive oxygen species.
Although, as described above, only an injection drug is currently available and effective as a drug to be effective in above-described disease, it is obvious that oral medicines would be more convenient for both doctors and patients, and would be simple and desirable for, in particular, long-term use to cure or prevention from the disease or maintain health.
In addition, in order to take SOD products, not as a medical drug, but as a health food, it is assumed that SOD products should be orally administered, and it is expected that SOD products with remarkable reactive oxygen species scavenging effect should be developed. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-110269 discloses a botanical nutrient obtained by mixing sesame oil and/or soybean oil extracted from sesame and/or soybean with the heated rice bran, wheat, "hatomugi" (oriental barley), wheat germ soybean, and green tea, to which a small amount of "koji" fungus (Aspergillus oryzae) is added.
The above-described publication states that this botanical nutrient contains marked SOD-like activity and is effective for the above-described diseases.
However, even if this botanical nutrient contains SOD-like activity, the SOD has a disadvantage in that it cannot be absorbed through gastro-intestinal tract the alimentary canal, as stated above, and, even if it could be absorbed, SOD is only effective for superoxide of the reactive oxygen species, H.sub.2 O.sub.2 being adversely increased.
It is experimentally recognized that raw, untreated product of the above-described material has lower reactive oxygen species scavenging action than treated material, and is so to speak, no more than a simple nutrient.